B3-4.1-01, Minimum Reserve Requirements (08/07/2024)

Liquid financial reserves are those liquid or near liquid assets that are available to a borrower after the mortgage closes. Liquid financial reserves include cash and other assets that are easily converted to cash by the borrower by

Reserves are measured by the number of months of the qualifying payment amount for the subject mortgage (based on PITIA) that a borrower could pay using their financial assets. For monthly housing expense and qualifying payment requirements, see B3-6-03, Monthly Housing Expense for the Subject PropertyB3-6-03, Monthly Housing Expense for the Subject Property and B3-6-04, Qualifying Payment RequirementsB3-6-04, Qualifying Payment Requirements .

The definition of reserves applies to both manually underwritten mortgage loans and loan casefiles underwritten through DU. Funds to close are subtracted from available assets when considering sufficient assets for reserves.

Acceptable Sources of Reserves

Examples of liquid financial assets that can be used for reserves include readily available funds in

Unacceptable Sources of Reserves

The following cannot be counted as part of the borrower’s reserves:

Supplementing Borrower Funds

Funds received from acceptable sources may be used to supplement the borrower’s funds to satisfy any financial reserve requirement.

Note: Eligible gift funds (but not gifts of equity) may be used to satisfy reserve requirements.

Determining Required Minimum Reserves

Minimum required reserves vary depending on

Manually underwritten loans: The minimum required reserves are documented in the Eligibility Matrix.

DU loan casefiles: DU will determine the reserve requirements based on the following: